The field of the present invention relates to optical devices incorporating distributed optical structures. In particular, optical multiplexing devices are described herein which include distributed optical structures.
A variety of distributed optical structures (also referred to as holographic optical processors or photonic bandgap structures) are disclosed in:
U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/811,081 entitled “Holographic spectral filter” filed Mar. 16, 2001 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,441), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/843,597 entitled “Optical processor” filed Apr. 26, 2001 (Pub. No. US 2003/0117677 A1: now Pat. No. 6,965,464), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/229,444 entitled “Amplitude and phase control in distributed optical structures” filed Aug. 27, 2002 (Pub. No. US 2003/0036444 A1;now U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,429), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein;
U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/653,876 entitled “Amplitude and phase control in distributed optical structures” filed Sep. 02, 2003 (Pub. No. US 2004/0076374 A1; now U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,417), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein; and
U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/525,815 entitled “Methods and devices for combining of holographic Bragg reflectors in planar waveguides” filed Nov. 28, 2003, hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
Application Ser. No. 09/811,081 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,879,441) discloses that diffractive elements of a diffractive element set can be collectively arranged so as to exhibit a positional variation in amplitude, optical separation, or spatial phase over some portion of the set. The positional variation can determine at least in part a transfer function imparted on an optical signal routed between optical ports by the diffractive element set.
Application Ser. No. 10/229,444 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,429) and application Ser. No. 10/653,876 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,417) disclose the following. Each diffractive element of a diffractive element set can be spatially arranged relative to a corresponding diffractive element virtual contour and can comprise at least one diffracting region thereof. The diffracting regions have at least one altered optical property so as to enable diffraction of a portion of the incident optical field therefrom. Each diffractive element diffracts a corresponding diffracted component of an incident optical field with a corresponding diffractive element transfer function so that the diffractive element set collectively provides a set transfer function imparted on an optical signal routed between optical ports by the diffractive element set. The set transfer function or at least one corresponding diffractive element transfer function can be determined at least in part by: (A) a less-than-unity fill factor for the corresponding virtual contour, (B) a non-uniform spatial distribution of multiple diffracting regions along the corresponding virtual contour, (C) variation of a spatial profile of the optical property of at least one diffracting region of the corresponding virtual contour, (D) variation of a spatial profile of the optical property among multiple diffracting regions of the corresponding virtual contour, (E) variation of the spatial profile of the optical property of at least one diffracting region among elements of at least one diffractive element set, (F) longitudinal displacement of at least one diffractive element relative to the corresponding virtual contour, or (G) at least one virtual contour lacking a diffractive element corresponding thereto.